Dhaka: Opposition BNP Chairperson and former PM Begum Khaleda Zia has been released this afternoon, 25 months after she landed in jail in a graft case.

She walked out of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, where she was being treated, around 4:15pm. She was being taken to her Gulshan residence.

The government yesterday announced its decision to release Khaleda, suspending her sentence for six months on humanitarian grounds.

The BNP chief landed in jail on February 8, 2018, after a special court sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

On October 30 that year, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years after dismissing her appeal.

The same special court jailed Khaleda and three others for seven years in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case on October 29 that year. The HC rejected her bail petition three times and the Supreme Court once in this case.

https://www.thedailystar.net/khaleda-zia-leaves-bsmmu-1885762